Cryogenic loss monitors with FPGA TDC signal processing

Radiation hard helium gas ionization chambers capable of operating in vacuum at temperatures ranging from 5K to 350K have been designed, fabricated and tested and will be used inside the cryostats at Fermilab's Superconducting Radiofrequency beam test facility. The chamber vessels are made of stainless steel and all materials used including seals are known to be radiation hard and suitable for operation at 5K. The chambers are designed to measure radiation up to 30 kRad/hr with sensitivity of approximately 1.9 pA/(Rad/hr). The signal current is measured with a recycling integrator current-to-frequency converter to achieve a required measurement capability for low current and a wide dynamic range. A novel scheme of using an FPGA-based time-to-digital converter (TDC) to measure time intervals between pulses output from the recycling integrator is employed to ensure a fast beam loss response along with a current measurement resolution better than 10-bit. This paper will describe the results obtained and highlight the processing techniques used.Comment: 7 pp. 2nd International Conference on Technology and Instrumentation in Particle Physics 2011: TIPP 2011. 9-14 Jun 2011. Chicago, Illinoi

Edge States and Broken Symmetry Phases of Laterally Confined 3^3He Films

Broken symmetries in topological condensed matter systems have implications for the spectrum of Fermionic excitations confined on surfaces or topological defects. The Fermionic spectrum of confined (quasi-2D) $^3$He-A consists of branches of chiral edge states. The negative energy states are related to the ground-state angular momentum, $L_z = (N/2) \hbar$, for $N/2$ Cooper pairs. The power law suppression of the angular momentum, $L_z(T) \simeq (N/2)\,\hbar\,[1 - \frac{2}{3}(\pi T/\Delta)^2 ]$ for $0 \le T \ll T_c$, in the fully gapped 2D chiral A-phase reflects the thermal excitation of the chiral edge Fermions. We discuss the effects of wave function overlap, and hybridization between edge states confined near opposing surfaces on the edge currents, ground-state angular momentum and ground-state order parameter. Under strong lateral confinement, the chiral A phase undergoes a sequence of phase transitions, first to a pair density wave (PDW) phase with broken translational symmetry at $D_{c2} \approx 16 \xi_0$. The PDW phase is described by a periodic array of chiral domains with alternating chirality, separated by domain walls. The period of PDW phase diverges as the confinement length $D\rightarrow D_{c_2}$. The PDW phase breaks time-reversal symmetry, translation invariance, but is invariant under the combination of time-reversal and translation by a one-half period of the PDW. The mass current distribution of the PDW phase reflects this combined symmetry, and orignates from the spectra of edge Fermions and the chiral branches bound to the domain walls. Under sufficiently strong confinement a second-order transition occurs to the non-chiral "polar phase" at $D_{c1} \approx 9\xi_0$, in which a single p-wave orbital state of Cooper pairs is aligned along the channel.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figure

An empirical investigation of the relationship between the real economy and stock returns for the United States

This paper tests for the relationship between excess returns and economic growth rates in the U.S., using a Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) approach. The system includes monthly data for inflation, consumption, narrow money supply and personal disposable income and each equation has up to 24-lagged Autoregressive terms. After removing the four major shocks associated with Black Monday, the Asian Crisis, “9·11” and its anniversary, we cannot find any ARCH behaviour in either the excess returns or the money series. The models are reduced to their parsimonious forms and the inflation and real consumption equations are corrected for ARCH. To make the result more robust we reduce our system to four equations by conditioning on income and testing the remaining equations for stability. The SUR model suggests strong long-run feedback between the financial sector and the real economy firstly through inflation, then consumption while the influence of real money supply appears transitory. Consumption is more sensitive to the economic variables in short and long run as compared with stock market windfalls

Strong Phases in the Decays B to pi pi

Two sources of strong phases in the decays $B$ to $\pi\pi$ are identified: (1) "quasi-elastic scattering" corresponding to intermediate states like $\pi\pi$ and $\rho\rho$, (2) ``$c\bar{c}$'' corresponding to intermediate states like $D\bar{D}$ and $D^{*}\bar{D}^{*}$. Possibilities of using data to identify these two sources are discussed and illustrated. Present data suggests both sources may be significant.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure

X-ray Polarization Signatures of Compton Scattering in Magnetic Cataclysmic Variables

Compton scattering within the accretion column of magnetic cataclysmic variables (mCVs) can induce a net polarization in the X-ray emission. We investigate this process using Monte Carlo simulations and find that significant polarization can arise as a result of the stratified flow structure in the shock-ionized column. We find that the degree of linear polarization can reach levels up to ~8% for systems with high accretion rates and low white-dwarf masses, when viewed at large inclination angles with respect to the accretion column axis. These levels are substantially higher than previously predicted estimates using an accretion column model with uniform density and temperature. We also find that for systems with a relatively low-mass white dwarf accreting at a high accretion rate, the polarization properties may be insensitive to the magnetic field, since most of the scattering occurs at the base of the accretion column where the density structure is determined mainly by bremsstrahlung cooling instead of cyclotron cooling.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, accepted by MNRA

Direct and secondary nuclear excitation with x-ray free-electron lasers

The direct and secondary nuclear excitation produced by an x-ray free electron laser when interacting with a solid-state nuclear target is investigated theoretically. When driven at the resonance energy, the x-ray free electron laser can produce direct photoexcitation. However, the dominant process in that interaction is the photoelectric effect producing a cold and very dense plasma in which also secondary processes such as nuclear excitation by electron capture may occur. We develop a realistic theoretical model to quantify the temporal dynamics of the plasma and the magnitude of the secondary excitation therein. Numerical results show that depending on the nuclear transition energy and the temperature and charge states reached in the plasma, secondary nuclear excitation by electron capture may dominate the direct photoexcitation by several orders of magnitude, as it is the case for the 4.8 keV transition from the isomeric state of $^{93}$Mo, or it can be negligible, as it is the case for the 14.4 keV M\"ossbauer transition in $^{57}\mathrm{Fe}$. These findings are most relevant for future nuclear quantum optics experiments at x-ray free electron laser facilities.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures; minor corrections made; accepted by Physics of Plasma

One-spin quantum logic gates from exchange interactions and a global magnetic field

It has been widely assumed that one-qubit gates in spin-based quantum computers suffer from severe technical difficulties. We show that one-qubit gates can in fact be generated using only modest and presently feasible technological requirements. Our solution uses only global magnetic fields and controllable Heisenberg exchange interactions, thus circumventing the need for single-spin addressing.Comment: 4 pages, incl. 1 figure. This significantly modified version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Authorization and access control of application data in Workflow systems

Workflow Management Systems (WfMSs) are used to support the modeling and coordinated execution of business processes within an organization or across organizational boundaries. Although some research efforts have addressed requirements for authorization and access control for workflow systems, little attention has been paid to the requirements as they apply to application data accessed or managed by WfMSs. In this paper, we discuss key access control requirements for application data in workflow applications using examples from the healthcare domain, introduce a classification of application data used in workflow systems by analyzing their sources, and then propose a comprehensive data authorization and access control mechanism for WfMSs. This involves four aspects: role, task, process instance-based user group, and data content. For implementation, a predicate-based access control method is used. We believe that the proposed model is applicable to workflow applications and WfMSs with diverse access control requirements